RoMp With soras account of the Anciesat Dwidi, and Sagas rendered into English fflortif U HmwprattH Eibrarg 01? B ^ Pic THE CELTIC LIBRARY PRESENTED BY CLARK SUTHERLAND NORTHUP CLASS OF 1893 ©I,,m,m. J^-^^MM'%fC and Scenes in this Neighbourhood are Photographed OQd Published by J<enrY W. Jaunt &. Co., OXFOI^D. ^^^^r. All Genuine Pictures ^ju} bear our Trade Mark. OCR** JA^lQ 196013 3 MMf i2 7?-AP 2 JAN * •^OOl 3 1, 96, A S'""'*^ Z^' . l^c. AMES, 34 Mi 21s. A G. POCE THE R j3^^ N 2 8 GFORD, Xllustra^ 'hillings. THERJ >UNTRY, Ind lood. EADING, Shillings. Do\ ingdon, ^^^-^-iS^d-n xpence. With a Guide to the Ncighlioiu-noou. Niiiepence. Gorirjg, Streatley aod the Neighbourl^ood, With Maps and Illustrations. 8vo. cloth, T-v\-o f hillings. pirt0&(tUn ^omev on ^Xax} xncvnxn^, ThifJ Edition, Illustrated, Sixpence. Words and Music only, 2d. Tne Stonehengre of Oxfordshire, (The RoUright Stones,) With Plan and Illustrations. 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There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924027948466 o £1 <31 o MUl^U Slowes; With some account of the Ancient Druids, and Sagas rendered into English. ^4^ Illustrated with Camera and Pen by JKenry W. Jaunt, f r.g.s., Author of the well known Guides to the Thames, &c., &c. OXPOI^D : |-ienry W. Taunf 3< do. Ai_^ Rights Reserved nj'j TAUNT & Co., ART PRINTERS, RIVERA WORKS: OXFORD. The best of thanks is t&'a.6,tte.& by the Author to his many kind friends, who by their information and assistance have materially contributed to the successful completion of this little work. To Dr. A. J. Evans, F.S.A. Keeper of the Ashmolean, to Mr. James Parker, to the Librarian and Assistants at the Bodleian and to Mr. Herbert Hurst among many others, a debt of kindnesses is here very gratefully acknoWedged. THE STONEHENGE OF OXFORDSHIRE. Chapter I. |nlroduclory. A relic hoar of very ancient time, Of days so lojig ago, that e'en Its very ori2;in is now in niyst'ry lost, The Yet in tradition's oft told tale There's many a worthy truth enshrined. Half hid and dull, like Rubies' fire, When fi'om tlie cov'rinf; clods of earth disclosed. Knight s^^ BOUT three miles nearly du north of the oKl market town of Cluppnit Norton, on the very summit of the table land of the hills, along which runs what was once an ancient British road, stand the Rollright Stones, the St( A: -A ( i> slin-e. The idea of the form and arrangement of the Stones can at once be grasped from the picture ab()\-e reproduced, from Dr. Plot's ( )xfordshire, where it will be seen that they consist of (i) a Circle of Stones, close by the southern side of the road a single Stone, called " The King's ; (2) Stone " on a long mound, some 70 yards to the north east on the five further side of the road and hedge ; and (3) another group of large Stones, known as "The Whispering Knights," about 390 yards to the eastward of the Circle in the field below. The Key plan on the next page will also give a general idea of the position of the various groups, while the larger plan of the Circle tells its own story, with the position and heights of the various stones of which it is composed. The stones, being wisely placed under the Act of Parliament for the preservation of ancient monuments, are enclosed in a protective fence of iron railings, the key of which is kept at the first cottage about 400 yards west of the Circle. There is no charge for admittance. The setting up of Stones for memorial and sacrificial purposes takes us a long way back in the history of the world ; or rather perhaps, in that of the Jewish race ; whose records in Holy Writ have preserved many an instance to us. The earliest appears to be that of Jacob (Gen. xxviii) who when on his journey to Padan- Aram in search of a bride used a stone as his pillow. He was blessed in a dream, and next morning took the stone he had used for his pillow, set it up for a pillar and poured oil upon the top of it. Then again in Exodus xxiv—4, 5. "And Moses rose up early in the morning and builded an altar under the hill and twelve pillars And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the Lord." And another occasion we find recorded in the fourth chapter of the book of Joshua, where the Children of Israel when passing dry shod over Jordan, were instructed by Joshua to " Take twelve men out of the people, out of every tribe a man, and command them to take out of the midst of Jordan, where the Priest's feet stood firm, twelve stones ; carry them with you and leave them in the lodging place where ye shall lodge this night That this may be a sign among you And these stones shall be a memorial unto the children of Israel forever And those twelve stones which they took out of Jordan, did Joshua pitch inGilgal Wherefore the place is called Gilgal unto this day." The word Gilgal, is explained in the marginal notes of our bible as rolling and it is thus added, that the place was so called because God rolled away the reproach of Egypt. But the word Gilgal (Isaiah xxviii—28) is also interpreted a wheel, and with this meaning it naturally suggests itself, that the stones which Joshua had brought out of Jordan and ' pitched ' were stood up in a circular form like a wheel. From passages in the later chapters of Joshua and other places, it appears that this Gilgal became one of the chief places of assembly for the Children of Israel, and was consecrated, or set apart, for the ~- —^^ ° * i » ^ « ii ; purpose of the gathering of the tribes, upon any proceedings of im- portance. In I Samuel xl — 15 we find "that all the people went to Gilgal ; and there they made Saul king before the Lord in Gilgal and there there they sacrificed sacrifices of peace offerings ; and Saul and the men of Israel rejoiced." There is no doubt that the putting up of Stones, Altars, and Circles of Stones was a universal custom, and we have a large number of instances. We have named these Rollright Stones " The Stonehenge of Oxfordshire,'\ -trpm the fact that in form and size of the Circle, it resembles in many ways the greater and more majestic circle of stone's in Wiltshire, called Stonehenge, which, although one of the most important of the English remains of this character, is by no means the only one. Even in Oxfordshire, on the southern side of the , Forest of Wychwood, which may probably, at an early period, have reached to Rollright itself ; there are three large stones pitched near the village of Stanton Harcourt, " " called The Devil's Coits ( from the local legend that his Satanic Majesty pitched them from Cumnor Hurst, a hill a mile or two stake away, and won the Man's soul, with whom he played, as the ) w^hich are supposed to be the few remains of a large Circle which once existed there ; and an early British village and burial ground was, a few years ago, excavated not far from the spot where they still stand. Stonehenge is, beyond all others remaining in Britain the Circle most impressive in its majesty and grandeur, with its enor- mous upright stones—far greater than Rollright—and the large capping stones resting on the top of them, so as to form a contin- uous circle around the summit ; a second inner circle of smaller stones, then others again -within these, and added to all this, the great antiquity, the awful mystery, which hangs around its origin. But Rollright is probably even earlier than Stonehenge and its stones are pitched in a far ruder manner, they bear no trace of being squared and there are no mortices or tenons up, ; although in its size and arrangement it has the same general fea- " tures : the position and orientation of the King Stone" at Rollright for instance, answers to the stone called the " Friars Heel " at Stonehenge, and to an observer in the centre of each circle the sun rises above them on the morning of the Summer solstice. (June 21.)* Stonehenge also, in its wrought stones, exhibits signs of a later and more enlightened date, just as in buildings, particularly in those of early periods, we find the later developement of a style shows more character as time proceeds.